That is an out of date factoid intended to stop the transition to EVs by making ICE pollution seem minor. Even when it was popular it ignored the work being done to fix that problem.

Fortunately, we moved to EVs and now all but the particularly resistant to reality accept they are better than ICE, in quality, efficiency, cost and carbon.

Meanwhile, we also passed some regulations to stop the cargo ships burning really dirty fuel which we were just letting them do for no good reason.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/at-last-the-shipping-industry...

> Public health experts estimate that once the 2020 sulfur cap takes effect, it would prevent roughly 150,000 premature deaths and 7.6 million childhood asthma cases globally each year.

> “There are very few examples of air quality regulations that have as broad a reach of benefits as this one,” said James Corbett, a professor of marine science and policy at the University of Delaware, who has conducted seminal research on international shipping emissions. “This is going to benefit children and adults in coastal communities located along major shipping lanes — not only [near ports] where ships are delivering cargo.”

So now cargo is both efficient and clean. And people are working on ways to make it even better, usually involving global regulations.

> When almost everything (except food) that you need to buy comes from China

When almost everything (except food) that you want to buy comes from China

I'd love to buy UK-made stuff but the country sold out to cheap sweatshop nations decades ago

Or buy used stuff that's usually better quality and built to last.

NOx and SO2 are (primarily) local pollutants, and get broken down over time. Cargo ships is a relatively small contributor to greenhouse gases for most items. (I would not be surprised if a few hundred km by truck causes larger greenhouse gas emissions than around-the-world by ship.